Laser Guided Lightning

Lightning is a fascinating but dangerous atmospheric phenomenon and for years people have experimented with its power in order to harness and control it. Lightning has already been triggered by launching lightning rockets carrying spools of wire into thunderstorms. The wire unwinds as the rocket ascends, providing a path for lightning. Imagine however if you could harness and control lightning with a laser and redirect it to strike the same place over and over! New research reveals that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect these high-power electrical discharges.

In a series of new experiments, a French research team sent a laser beam skimming past a spherical electrode to an oppositely charged electrode. Using an experimental apparatus reminiscent of a classic Frankenstein movie, French researchers coaxed laboratory-generated lightning into striking the same place, not just twice, but over and over by using pulses of laser light to create a virtual lightning rod out of a column of ionized gas. This is the first time that these laser-induced atmospheric filaments were able to redirect an electrical discharge away from its intended target. Since lightning tends to follow the path of least resistance, it would preferentially strike the nearest object; in nature, that would be the tallest object. Without the laser, the discharge obeyed this rule and always struck the taller, pointed electrode. With the laser, however, the discharge was redirected, following the filaments instead. This occurred even after the initial path of the discharge began to form.

This is a major development for science and now we are that much closer to harnessing and controlling the power of lightning. Imagine the benefits of what targeted lightning could provide. What are some uses you can think of? Perhaps a benefit is to target lighting from storms to a specific location to prevent damage. Maybe all energy from the lightning could be targeted to a generator and used for power or charging stations. Let's take this deeper and suggest that maybe this harnessed lighting would be used by military forces as a potential weapon. Regardless of how it is used in the future, the potential and benefits of using harnessed lightning is unlimited. Are we one step closer to controlling nature? According to this story, it appears that we are...